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Ethan Lipton New York, NY

Dubbed the “Best Lounge Act of 2009” by New York Magazine, Ethan Lipton and his Orchestra play a brand of jazz folk country lounge that’s drawn comparisons to the music of Randy Newman, Leon Redbone and Tom Waits. With melancholy wit and a cockeyed worldview, sepia-toned singer-songwriter Lipton and bandmates Eben Levy (guitar), Ian Riggs (bass) and Vito Dieterle (sax) deliver songs steeped in mixed-message sincerity and soul.

A fixture of the Downtown scene, Brooklyn's Ethan Lipton & his Orchestra earned acclaim for its 2007 debut studio album, MR. SOFTY, the follow-up to two live albums (A NEW LOW, BABY I FEEL THE SAME WAY) on indie Home Office Records. The band shows up often at Joe’s Pub and has been featured locally at Celebrate Brooklyn, Bryant Park, the 92nd St. Y Tribeca, Roosevelt Live, Rockwood Music Hall and Barbes, around the Northeast at the Vermont Arts Exchange, Camden Opera House and MassMoCA, and in LA at Tangier, the Silverlake Lounge and the Derby. DJ Vin Scelsa made MR. SOFTY a staple of his WFUV radio show, helping to stir interest at independent radio stations across the country. The band has been featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition and contributed a memorable cover of “Corner Soul” to the Clash tribute album THE SANDINISTA PROJECT.

"Hilarious, twisted, sophisticated, schleppy and sad all at once…songs that take the mundane of life and twist it"
(NPR’s Weekend Edition)

"Tender, wise and occasionally hostile, Ethan’s like the tipsy uncle at the family reunion who spills the shameful secrets—it's uncomfortable but hilarious, and everyone feels better once the truth is out."
(National lead singer Matt Berninger, in the New York Times)

"Ethan Lipton & his Orchestra are not your average band. They're not even your non-average band. They are out there. I'm talking past Pluto the non-planet out there. And that's a good thing. "
(Mainstream Isn’t So Bad)

"With the distinct high warble of his voice, homespun folksy tunes, and gentle good manners, Ethan Lipton seems to have mistakenly wandered into the 21st Century directly from the Great Depression."
(Popmatters)

"It’s always enjoyable when a singer-songwriter throws some humor into his misery."
(Timeout NY)

“Ethan Lipton makes me want to hear everything he's ever done."
(Orange County Register)

“With his earnest brown suits, mournful eyes, and neat mustache, Ethan Lipton” looks less like a silken-throated lounge lizard than he does a beaten-down ad salesman—an ordinary Joe singing gentle songs about everyday life."
(New York Magazine)

"Sad little songs packed full of absurdity."
(Fluxblog)

“Big of schnozz, thick of moustache and dulcet of voice, Mr. Lipton croons unlikely urban haikus and wry ballads.”
(New York Observer)

1. ethanlipton.com